May i ask for some help please

[sologuitarist61]

But when you strap your DSLR on it ...

Absolutely, it doesn't have to be a scope, use your DSLR direct.

[shazbah]

Sounds like you guys know me already.Ha Ha

Are these mounts hard to set up?? They look pretty complicated to me

Sharon

[Ant]

Edit: that's strange I know that I'm slow at typing - but when I started there were no replies to the OP

Hi Sharon,

Welcome to SGL.

The C90 is a beginners scope as you say, but it is a nice scope designed primarily for Lunar and planetary viewing. You will get some nice viewing through it.

You will see LOADS more than the naked eye.

If you have a decent west horizon you can view two bright "stars" over there. The bright one is Venus and the fainter (lower) one is Jupiter. Jupiter is way past it's best now, but you should be able to make out some cloud belts and 4 moons. With venus you'll be able to see it's disc (which will look close to a quarter moon in shape now).

Beware though viewing both these planets now, will be through warm turbulent air and will not give you the best view. But you'll see something...

If you look about half way up in the south late evening you see a bright "reddy" star - that's Mars. I'm not a fan of Mars, but you'll see a disc and once you looked for a bit you'll be able to spot some dark marking in the surface and maybe a white polar cap.

By far the best planet of all is visible later in the night. Saturn is in Virgo and rising by around 9pm. Leave it a few hours to get some height - through your scope you will be able to see the rings... it'll be a view you'll probably never forget!!!

Start of with the 32mm eyepiece. Thats only 39x - but get comfortable with that. Make sure that you can focus etc. Then take out the 32mm, add in the barlow and put them both back in.

You will at this point need to refocus - Even with the barlow the magnification will only be 79x.

But it will be well worth the effort. Once you ready maybe invest in a higher power eyepiece.

BTW, just wait till you see the moon (new moon today) so keep your eye peeled for the crescent moon appearing in the West from Saturday onwards

Cheers

Ant

[sologuitarist61]

Sounds like you guys know me already.Ha Ha

Are these mounts hard to set up?? They look pretty complicated to me

Sharon

Like most things it is not difficult when you get the hang of it. Do you have a permanent site or will you be lugging it around? If you do have permanent site then half the battle is over as you can do the initial set up and then leave the mount and just take off the scope. It is a bit more arduous if you are taking it to others sites as you need you need to set is up each time - only roughly north if you are using it visually, but a polar aligned if taking photos.

[shazbah]

Ant: Thanks for the heads up on the moon, can't wait.

Richard: The mount will only be used in the garden. The reason i want a sturdy tripod is because i spend xmas and new year in Scotland up in the highlands in a log cabin with my camera and equipment so i now need a sturdy tripod for scope as the ones i have i use for my camera and i dont want to be lugging a great heavy tripod along with all my other equipment. Trust me guys looking at the sky up there is awesome. The moon never looks the same anywhere else but it's down to light pollution. When i am there i can look up at the mountains and stars and loose myself. (Does that sound crazy??)

Sharon

[sologuitarist61]

You are one lucky girls Sharon, can't think of anything better than Scotland and a camera - heaven! Then by al means go for the Manfrotto - great tripods.

[nightfisher]

just to confirm ants point about mars, last night i spent a couple of hours trying to tease detail out viewing mars, as its about the only object worth trying in my limited horizon, i was using my tal100 refractor and some rather nice orthoscopic eps but still struggled to get real detail..........saturn and jupiter are the jewels of the planets

[Carbon Brush]

On mounts... quoting. Best to get the biggest you can afford now and save losing money buying and selling.

Couldn't agree more.

My thoughts are buy big.

A big mount gives you the ability to fit different scope/camera kit and keep performance.

It hurts the wallet once when bought. But lasts a long time.

If you go too big though it can be an unwieldy lump that hurts your back with every use.

I tend to think of EQ5 as a good weight/performance compromise. But everyone has their own ideas on this.

[sologuitarist61]

On mounts... quoting. Best to get the biggest you can afford now and save losing money buying and selling.

Couldn't agree more.

My thoughts are buy big.

A big mount gives you the ability to fit different scope/camera kit and keep performance.

It hurts the wallet once when bought. But lasts a long time.

If you go too big though it can be an unwieldy lump that hurts your back with every use.

I tend to think of EQ5 as a good weight/performance compromise. But everyone has their own ideas on this.

Yes I have the Celestron equivalent of the EQ5, the CG5-GT and it is very good and takes my scopes with no trouble at all - sounds like a coffee grinder, but what the hell!

[shazbah]

thanks guys i will look into this mount

Sharon